The French are translating Liber Fanatica 7 and need some help defining this sentence below. I need opinions please!

Jay H

Emirikol said:

Hmm, that is an odd sentence. Obviously "warbling babies" is a close approximation. Better turns of phrases are "crying babies", or "wailing babies", but warbling could work if it wanted to imply a more coherent 'sing-song' type of sound emitted. With the seeming eerieness of the rest, I think wailing might be more appropriate.

"Thick man-walls must breed discontent" is a lot tougher. You can perhaps get a little insight by reading further. "…Until they built a new venue, crammed with discontented souls…". So, is it referring to some sort of man-made prison?

My thoughts are that thick walls forment discontent (i.e. breed). So, it might translate to something like:

"There are so many wailing babies in the place. Thick, man-made walls forment discontent."

That is still a very awkward sentence. I can't even make sense of what it is trying to say.

It's titled " Athestro's Soliloquy", so it looks like it's a poetic passage from a play. It also looks like Athestro is non-Human ( use of the term 'man-walls'), probably a Beastman (use of the word 'bray'), and probably long-lived or Daemonic ("I remember a time when…"). The whole piece is discussing a city, and commenting on the unhappiness that cities seems to create. The two lines you focus on in particular emphasise this point. "Warbling babies" are simply unhappy, complaining Humans, while "Thick man-walls breed discontent" says this is must be what cities do to Humans; they were a lot more content with their lives "when they [were] free to run and fight, to dance the ancient dance on the ancient stage" (the wilds and countryside of tribal times). This links back into the theme of the section it introduces, Dirty Jim's Protext Brigade, city-based agitators and dissidents. Cheers Sparrow

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deleted, sorry folks nothing to see

Hi,

I'm one of the french who's going to translate LF7, thanks for your answers, it's really helpful !

Gris-gris